


These Last Moments

by unfolded73



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2018-01-03 20:38:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unfolded73/pseuds/unfolded73
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten's last moments before regeneration (written before any of the S4 specials aired)</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Last Moments

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published November 2008, a couple of weeks after David Tennant announced he was leaving the show.

The Doctor could hear voices, shouting but muffled, like he was hearing them through water. Martha's shrill call of _"Doctor!"_ penetrated the fog a little, and he struggled to open his eyes. 

She was pressing a cloth to his abdomen, and there was blood - quite a lot of blood, by the look of it. _Oh, well,_ he thought. Regeneration would sort that out. 

"You're going to be fine, Doctor. Just hang on," Martha said. There were others nearby - Jack, and probably that Ianto fellow - but he couldn't focus on anyone else. 

"You're lying," he said, "but thanks." 

"Will you ... are you going to regenerate?" She knew the technicalities of the process, had made him describe it all in detail after the Master, but she'd never witnessed it. 

"Probably any minute now," he said through clenched teeth. There was a great deal of pain, and it was rather unpleasant. Better than a Dalek laser, but only just. "When my skin starts to glow, you should back up." 

They were odd, these last moments before regeneration - they seemed to stretch outside of time. A few seconds for everyone else could seem like several minutes for him. Last time, the regeneration that he averted, his thoughts had been entirely of Rose. Well, for that matter, so had his thoughts during his last proper regeneration. Thus, when he closed his eyes on Martha and opened them on a very, very real facsimile of Bad Wolf Bay, he huffed with frustration. "It's not always about you, you know!" he shouted at the sea. 

"I never said it was." Her voice was soft, coming from just behind him, and he shuddered at how achingly familiar it was. He felt rather than saw her step forward to stand at his side. "Am I dreaming?" she asked. "This looks too real to be a dream." 

"It might be a sort of mutual dream. Or hallucination. I'm not entirely sure how it's possible, actually: perhaps a very tiny crack still exists between these two universes ...?" He turned to look at her. "You changed your hair." 

Rose smiled, touching her longer, slightly darker locks. "A bit." She looked at him probingly. "What's happening right now?" 

"I'm dying. Wellll, regenerating. Last chance to look at this daft face." 

"Have you forgotten? I look at that daft face every day. Also, your self-deprecating language is fooling no one - you're gorgeous and you know it." 

"Well." He sniffed, straightening his dream-tie. "So things are ... good?" 

"Should I go ahead and answer the questions you want to ask, but won't? Yes, it was difficult at first. Yes, I was angry with you for a while. Yes, he misses the TARDIS. Yes, I suppose he makes a passable human - well, part-human. Yes, I love him." She held up her left hand, showing him the gold band she wore. "Yes, we promised each other forever." 

He smiled. "Street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home." 

"What?" She frowned in confusion. 

"Nothing. I'm happy for you." 

"I'm sorry you're dying." 

"Well, you know, it's the life of a Time Lord." 

"Yeah." She reached out and took his hand. "I remember. Are you alone?" 

"Nah. Martha's there, and Jack." 

"I'm glad. I'm glad you're not alone." Her eyes filled with tears. "What are you going to look like?" 

The Doctor shrugged. "No idea." 

"I miss this suit," she said in a tearful voice, patting his arm. 

"Yeah." He looked down at the brown, with its thin, blue pinstripes standing out in the light of the overcast day. "I think I'm going to miss it too." He saw the veins in his hand start to glow with a faint, golden light. "Well, I think that's my cue." The Doctor looked up and squared his shoulders. "Goodbye, Rose Tyler." 

"Oh no, you don't." Pulling him by the hand she still held, Rose kissed him hard, her mouth opening against his. It was a little shocking to be sure, suddenly becoming so intimately acquainted with her tongue, but he supposed for her, kissing him was habit. After several moments, she let go of him and backed up a few steps. 

"I love you," he said suddenly. "I hope you know that I always ..." 

Rose nodded. "I know. Goodbye, Doctor." 

*** 

Martha squinted as the golden light filled the room. Reaching out, she grabbed Jack's hand. She held on tight and waited. 

*** 

With a gasp, Rose sat bolt upright in bed. Her cheeks were wet with tears she had shed as she dreamed, as she stood on a beach far away.

Next to her, the covers rustled. "Rose? You okay?" He sat up next to her, put a warm hand on her back, and clicked on the bedside lamp.

Rose turned to look at her husband, wild hair and sleepy eyes and daft, gorgeous face. She took in every detail of him: the shadow of the stubble on his cheeks, his brown eyes (usually wide but now squinting), his full lower lip, his thin frame clad in a red T-shirt. Throwing herself into his arms, she pressed her nose to his shoulder and smelled his familiar scent. "Bad dream?" he asked.

"Something like that." Sniffling, she continued to hold on. "Thank you."

"For what?" he asked, guiding her to lie down and turning the light back off.

Rose cupped his cheek and kissed him. "For being my Doctor."


End file.
